Eyes Open
by LOST-Annie
Summary: Season Three Skate atm Each chapter is based on a Snow Patrol song from the newest album Eyes Open. Chapter Four Shut Your Eyes is now up.
1. You're All I Have

Title: **Eyes Open**

Author: LOST-Annie

Rating: PG-13ish

Length: 11 Chapters

CHAPTER ONE: **YOU'RE ALL I HAVE**

Sawyer sat very still in his bear-cage cell. The chaos of the last week was putting an enormous strain on him. He was now convinced that he could survive, but he wanted to see Kate for real before the lions took their share and left the whole group scattered and angry. He was fairly certain that if given a chance, the others would divide the entire group, pitting them against one another.

As a matter of fact, he had a feeling that's where things were heading even at that very moment, as he sat with his back against the concrete wall eating half of a fish biscuit, watching Kate sit quietly in the cage across from him, gazing into the trees, her half of the fish biscuit sitting uneaten in her lap, that the others were tricking the rest of the group and trapping them and capturing them and maybe even killing them.

It was disturbing and frustrating, as was the fact that Kate was sitting there without speaking to him or even looking at him. He knew that she was probably thinking about Jack. She had a right to, he supposed, but it still pissed him off beyond belief.

He wanted a chance to hold on to the island, to Kate. It was becoming increasingly clear that she was all that he had left. The thought made him feel weak, but he knew that bravery was required here, and he felt that with Kate's help, he could be courageous. He hoped that what he had done earlier that day had seemed courageous to her. He had blown off the kiss as a tactic to find out how strong the others were, but in reality, he had just lost his self-control for a moment.

She had been working and on the verge of breaking, he could tell by the look on her face. She was scared beyond imagination and so was he. But looking at her in that damn dress, trying so hard not to let the hard work catch up with her, trying not to let her fatigue show, he couldn't help himself. She was sacrificing her health and for what? For him? For the others? For the rest of the survivors? For Jack? She had a way about her movements, a certain sadness, that turned him on. He couldn't deny that there was an attraction there.

Kate was cinematic and razor sharp, her bite much worse than bark would let on. She was a welcome arrow through the heart, and when he kissed her, it felt like he was home, like the electric shocks were totally worth it, even against his sore, aching bones. He wanted her to give him something to hold onto so that he wouldn't lose himself completely what with the others keeping them in cages and forcing them to do busy work.

There was a darkness deep in her, a frightening magic Sawyer clung to. He was all alone in the world without Kate. She was his rock, his strength that he could draw upon at any given moment. If she was threatened, he felt obligated to step in and fight for her, even when the odds were against him. Even when she begged him not to. That was another reason he had kissed her that day. She was so close to being broken that he felt it was his duty to step in, to try to save her. He wasn't a hero. Far from it in fact, but maybe he loved her, and people did crazy things when they were in love.


	2. Hands Open

First, I want to thank everyone who reviewed.

xalicemx - if I get enough encouragement from you guys, I'll write a chapter for every song on the album.

Second, I want to apologize for the short length of the chapters. They might get longer, but they might not. I'm not totally sure yet.

CHAPTER TWO: **HANDS OPEN**

The next morning, Sawyer woke up to find Kate curled up in a corner of her cage. The fish biscuit was still sitting uneaten beside her. He sat watching her for a few minutes until three of the others appeared and walked between the cages, causing Kate to wake up. She looked across the space at Sawyer.

"You didn't eat your fish biscuit." He said accusingly. She looked at it with a disgusted look on her face.

"It probably isn't healthy for humans to eat these things." She said, poking at it experimentally with the long thin pointer finger of her right hand. He wanted to argue with her on the matter simply because he enjoyed arguing with her and making her blush in frustration, but what she was saying made sense to him. Logically, if he agreed with her on the matter, there was no reason to argue, and so he decided to let it drop. His tongue, however, ran off without him.

"Gotta eat sometime." He said quietly. She looked up at him wearily.

"You want it?" She asked him, lifting the thing and holding it out at arms-length from her body.

"No. I want to watch _you_ eat it." He told her with a smirk. She glared at him, and he knew he was digging his own grave. He took a deep breath and lost the smirk, unwilling to sabotage the best thing that he had. It would have been much easier to just keep his mouth shut if he knew what he wanted. As it was, he knew that he wanted Kate, but he didn't know anything more than that. He forced his eyes to remain on her and opened his hands and hoped she would in turn open her heart. He hoped that she would know that he wanted to make sure she was safe all the time.

"It's not as easy as willing it all to be right. You have to do more than hope." Kate told him with a sigh. She laughed, a false laugh that sounded completely hollow, and Sawyer wanted to scream. He wanted to hear her laugh like she meant it. Wanted her to be happy and let him hold her. The others came back, this time eight people strong, and opened Sawyer's cage, wrenching him up to his feet and aiming a gun at his head when he jerked away from them as they shoved him out into the open. They then turned to Kate's cage and did the same, Kate willingly moving out of the bear-cage.

"Time to go to work." The man with the shocking device said with a smirk. Sawyer opened his hands and spread his arms, suggesting to the man that he was ready for him. Kate put a warm hand on his arm to stop him, and he relished the way her fingertips brushed against his forearm until the others all pointed guns at them, pulling Kate away from him. She smiled sadly, and it was merely a shadow of the smiles she had shared with him in the past.


	3. Chasing Cars

A/N: I'm hoping for more reviews this chapter.

CHAPTER THREE: **CHASING CARS**

That evening when they returned to the cages, Kate wouldn't stay still. She restlessly moved about the cage, pacing and touching the bars with her hands, tightening her fingers around them into fists, her whole arm tensing, and then releasing desperately, moving to the other side and then back. Sawyer watched her work herself into a frenzy while he arranged to receive a fish biscuit. When he had the disgusting thing in his hands, he turned to Kate, who was wiping frantically at her face with the back of her hand.

"Hey… you want something to eat?" He asked her quietly. She shook her head shortly and then sniffled, facing away from him.

"No, I'm good. I'm not- I'm not really hungry." She said, her voice shaking precariously. Sawyer pursed his lips and got a drink from the water source.

"We're gonna be okay, Freckles. You and I, we're gonna fix this." He told her. She let out a strangled half-sob and he moved to the bars closest to her.

"If Jack was here…" She thought for a few seconds and then shook her head.

"If Jack was here, he'd be makin' a bunch of noise and he'd be bein' stubborn as hell. We don't need anyone else." He told her. She turned her head slightly so that he could see the tears shining on her cheeks. He could tell that she didn't completely believe him, but she was definitely listening. Sawyer sat down and then lowered himself onto his back so that he was looking up at the stars. "My back hurts from movin' all those goddamn rocks."

"I'm sorry." She responded quietly. She was facing him now, still standing. He looked over at her.

"Lay down." He told her quietly. She looked confused.

"What? I don't-" she began, but Sawyer cut her off.

"Lay down with me." He kept his gaze on her face. She awkwardly sat down, carefully making sure the short dress remained appropriate. She then moved jerkily until she was laying down, her cheeks still shining with tears. Sawyer wanted to tell her how he felt, what he was thinking, but he didn't know how. The three words that were required of him were hackneyed, so useless and meaningless that the mere thought of saying them out loud pained him. She was starting to get restless again. He asked her irritably, "Would you lie still for two seconds?"

"I'm sorry." She said once more, tears still rolling down her cheeks, unchecked now. "I just… they said that-"

"Forget what they said. Just for a little while. You waste all your time worrying, you're gonna wake up one day realize that you're old. Just lay here." He listened to her breath slowly return to normal and she seemed calm and collected enough to continue talking. "You're gonna be okay, Kate. I'm gonna make sure of that."

"You just called me Kate…" She said quietly. Sawyer stopped breathing for a second, a moment of sheer panic taking over before she continued. "Does that mean that… that I could call you James?"

Sawyer listened to the way he said the name and felt his heart swell. The way she said his name made him feel proud to own such a name that she could say with such grace. He wished that he shared her grace. "I have to get used to it."

He focused on the sky, little star-eyes winking at him reassuringly. The mysterious twinkle reminded him of Kate's eyes, perfect and green as they were. Then all he could see was her eyes, looking longingly, hopefully, desperately, down on him. He wasn't sure where he was or how any of this had come to be, but he hoped that things would never change for he and Kate. James and Kate.


	4. Shut Your Eyes

I'm really sorry that this chapter is so short. I've been really busy.

CHAPTER FOUR: **SHUT YOUR EYES**

Kate climbed all the way out of her cage. Up the inside, out the top, down the outside and to Sawyer's cage. She stood there, listening to him snoring for a few moments, waiting for the others to jump out of nowhere and kill one or both of them. Nobody came. Sawyer kept snoring.

The air was warm and humid, causing her to perspire, the sweat clinging to the back of her neck. She climbed inside Sawyer's cage and stood beside his sleeping body, watching him twitch nervously from the nightmares she was sure haunted him the same way they haunted her. She touched his cheek carefully and he jerked awake, his limbs twitching and shaking as he attempted to orient himself.

"Freckles! What're you doin'? How're you in here?" He hissed at her quietly. She whispered an explanation, and he could tell that she was far from calm. Her face was blotchy, her eyes slightly swollen. The base of her nostrils shone in the moonlight. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong. I just climbed through the top bars… I didn't want to be alone." She sounded afraid. More afraid than he'd ever heard her and in a completely different way. This time she seemed to have been pushed over the edge of reason. He put his hands on her shoulders, glancing out to make sure none of the others were coming. When he was quite sure that they were alone, he pulled her in towards him. She was sweating in the heat as was he. He thought hard about cold, snow-caked streets, trying to calm himself down, but it was no use; they were both sweating and their skin was touching and he couldn't help himself. The worrying was beginning to hurt. He could be killed at any minute. He closed his eyes and kissed her cheek, imagining that they were back in the hatch. She was caught by surprise momentarily before she recovered, responding.

Later, they came down off of their high feeling dizzy, light, and free. They hadn't been killed and felt a false sense of safety, as if they were cushioned in their cages, away from the worries and graves that awaited them. They both closed their eyes, wrapped up in one another and imagined they were in some other place.


End file.
